INTRODUCTION
At no other point in the world’s history has Humanity been as interconnected and interdependent as it is at the start of the 21st century. Bomb blasts in Nigeria bring Grand Rapids commuters to their knees with a spike in gas prices. Droughts in the South Pacific force rice rationing in California. Chrysler cars are produced in The United Mexican States, while Honda cars roll off assembly lines in the State of Ohio. People of Buddhist, Muslim, and Sikh faiths are no longer thought of (entirely) as a “them” across two oceans, but rather live just over privacy fences from Maine to Kansas to New Mexico. Furthermore, through internet social communities, like chat rooms and MySpace, these other “faith stories” have crowded out the Christian story, preventing any one faith from legitimately claiming to be the sine qua non of reality defining stories. Welcome to the 21st century world on the steroids of globalization!
Globalization is can be described as a process by which the people of the world are unified into a single society and function together through the economic, technological, socio-cultural and political forces of the world. It is through these processes that the world has become hyper-connected and hyper-dependent. How, then, should the 21st century Church respond to globalization and “do missions” in this context? We must root our answers in an understanding of God as One who globally cares for all Creation and nations. Furthermore, that Global God sends the Church to all nations to woo them to relationship with Himself by discipling them in His Ways and prophetically witnessing to the values of the Reign of God through testimony and embodiment. This will happen, though, only when She realizes the full scope of globalization and discovers the form and substance of mission in a world that has rejected the power and influence of Western nations.
THE GLOBAL GOD
At the heart of the question of globalization and the church is the realization that God is truly global: through the great reality made known through in Jesus Christ, we see in the Creator an ocean of infinite love overflowing to all of Creation, including all nations. This historically biblical understanding of God’s movement in History was largely disrupted through the doctrine of election in the Reformation, a doctrine that skewed this biblical understanding of God in History. Through the writings of such Reformers as John Calvin, it was postulated that the once Global God was now a European God who embraced and forgave only a select group of people, opening His Kingdom to a narrow slice of the nations. But while the Reformers could postulate an election that completely excluded those who could not be touched by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, mostly because great swaths of the world were considered unknown, the Church cannot do so in the Age of Globalization. Those who were once considered savages and “Others” are now our neighbor. In fact, the Book of Jonah prevents us from restricting God’s embracing love.
In the Jonah parable we see a man who acts as a mouthpiece and poster child for a group of hyper-nationalists who said YHWH’s forgiveness and mercy should only extend to His people and never to those outside of that elected group. God, however, is “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity,” even toward pagans like the Assyrians who turn from their wickedness in repentance. That’s what they did and that’s what God did: Through Jonah’s prophetic witness, the people of Nineveh repented of their wickedness and turned toward the true God; God saw how they turned from their wicked ways and had compassion on them and relented from sending calamity. Even though they were not among the elected clan of the Israelites, God bestowed His grace! In the Age of Enlightenment and Discovery it was easy for European Reformers to easily dismiss the faiths of the Other as pagan, primarily because they offended their European cultural sensibilities not simply because they denied the exclusivity of Jesus. In the Age of Globalization, however, these people groups cannot be dismissed so easily, especially since God does care for all people.
Not only does our Global God desire that all should be restored to relationship with Himself and discipled in His Way, He is also the God of the oppressed and constantly presents to Israel a “humanitarian vision” for community. In the Book of Deuteronomy, for instance, God instructs His people to care for the alien, orphan, and widow, not simply as social welfare causes, but because their circumstances warranted such care. Just as support for the Levites was a normal rhythm of the life of this community, God expected His people to embody His own care for the marginalized by caring for them. The character of this Global God is also reflected in the early Church as described by Luke in the Book of Acts. In fact, in describing how there were no poor among the early followers of Christ in 4:34, Luke deliberately invokes Deuteronomy 15:4, implying that he saw the early Christian community as being governed by Deuteronomy’s vision. So both through the Israelites and the Church, we see God’s heart for the global poor and marginalized reflected in His commands to His people. No greater insight in the global nature of God is evident, however, than in the incarnation of God in Christ.
In the person of Jesus Christ, we see a truly Global God. Though He originally appeared and ministered to a small group of people, the children of Israel, we see a person who accepts and embraces everyone, Jew and Gentile alike. In fact, He viewed His mission in this embracing framework: He was sent to the socially marginalized to preach good news; He came to bring healing to the blind; He came to release the captives and oppressed; and finally He was sent to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor for all the world. Of particular interest is the special emphasis on bringing release, which is emphasized elsewhere in Luke-Acts in three ways: The forgiveness and release from sins for the world, which had both spiritual and social ramifications for Jews and Gentiles alike; release and healing from the binding power of Satan, both diabolical and social; and release from debts, drawing on the Jubilee legislation of Leviticus that command the freeing of slaves, cancellation of debts, fallowing of land, and return of land to the original distribution under Moses. So prophetically, He came to testify to and embody the in-breaking of the Reign of God, while teaching us a better way of Being Human. It is this last task that begins the mission of the Church as a community sent to disciple the nations in God’s Way.
GLOBAL DISCIPLE-MAKING
In response to this Global God the Church is sent to the entire world as an apostle; the Church is sent by the Global God on behalf of the Reign of God to influence the nations to follow Jesus with their lives and lifestyle. The manner in which the Church must go, however, must be tempered by the realities of globalization and our pluralistic world. While previous disciple-making endeavors colonialistically sought to replace the social and cultural values that governed people’s thinking in Asia and Africa with Enlightenment values of the West, contemporary efforts must be more conversant with these faiths and find points of connection where God is already at work. For instance, Kosuke Koyama suggests the Church has a major opportunity and challenge to enter into dialogue with Buddhists over their four major ethical issues: the source of authority in religious belief and ethics, the nature and role of the “self” as an ethical agent, the importance of community in encouraging moral action, and the religious and ethical place of government in society. A close look by the Church would reveal a common link between the ethical standards of Jesus Christ and those of the Buddhist faith, providing a clear starting point for discipleship in the Way of Jesus and redemption in His sacrifice. This dialogue, however, cannot be moored in pluralism, but must move toward Jesus.
While dialogue with the world religious faiths is healthy in our pluralistic society, the conversation must move from talk of global religious stories to the climax of our world’s story in Jesus Christ. Lest the focus of our conversation shifts from Jesus to “who will be saved at the end?”, the goal of missions and discipleship must be the glory of God and posing this question: “What is the meaning and goal of this common human story in which we are all, Christians and others together, participants.”
Thus, our contribution to this dialogue will simply be telling and retelling the story of Jesus, because as Paul says the Story itself is the power of God for salvation. And in retelling the Story of Jesus in constant relational dialogue with the Other, we make space for the Spirit to move in their hearts. Again, the purpose is not sifting out who is in and who is out of the Kingdom of God, but sharing the Story of Jesus in the context of committed relationships with the Other and letting His Story be our Story, for the glory of God.
Discipleship in the era of globalization cannot begin in the trenches on either side of no-man’s-land, but rather must start in the space between the creeds. Because as Newbigin correctly asserts, “The Christian who enters dialogue on the basis of his or her own ‘confession’ must recognize that others will do the same.” Because every religion will come to the table to dialogue from their own creedal position, Christians cannot come to colonize brandishing their own doctrines, but must partner with what God is already doing among other faiths in an effort to ultimately point people toward Jesus Christ. Ultimately, we must equip the Church to understand and encounter such faiths so that these encounters will not be marked by prejudice, paternalism, and pride, but will rather be characterized by empathy, compassion, and honest dialogue.
GLOBAL PROPHETIC WITNESS
Recent headlines have revealed the consequences of globalization in a fallen world, consequences resulting in the exploitation of people for the sake of pure economics. On November 26, 2007, The New York Times reported the deplorable working conditions of men in India who make manhole covers for the New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection. As the article explained, the men were shirtless, barefoot, sweaty, and whip-thin, working without even basic humane safety standards. The week before, fresh revelations surfaced in the same country that Gap Inc. continues to use contractors that employ child labor, with kids as young as ten years old stitching together cute little polos for suburban ten year olds in America. Finally, contractors for yet another corporation, Victoria’s Secret, force their Jordanian workers to work up to 105 hours a week, while receiving just $.04 compensation per knitted $14 bikini. The question remains, though: Where is the moral outcry of the Body of Christ? In the face of this injustice and inequity, where is the Church’s prophetic witness?
In attempting to speak prophetically into the global capitalistic system, one Christian author and professor, John A. Schneider, wrote how the Church should understand and bless the economic system of capitalism as a means by which God is ushering in His “cosmic good” for His global Creation. He insists that God originally desired Humans to acquire and enjoy a good, affluent existence brimming with the good stuff of life, and for good reason. But while he does make a fairly convincing case that the basic form of capitalism can contribute to this global cosmic good, like many Christians he fails to acknowledge the global harm consumer capitalism has caused the non-privileged developing world in an era of globalization. Corporations that drive the American economy, and thus feed the privileged developed American consumer appetite, have built themselves on the backs of the Global Brown Man, with little thought given to the consequences of their construction efforts. If prophet witness is the articulation of moral truth, surely the Church has words to breath into the volatile globalization conversation.
If the Church were to take Her mission as prophetic witnesses seriously we might ask: When a Christian grandmother purchases a sweater at Gap made by an Indian 10 year old for her teenage grandson, is she not at least somewhat complicit in that Indian child’s suffering? Or when a Christian college student buys a pound of Guatemala Antigua Blend coffee from Starbucks for $12.95 for his late night study sessions, does he not in someway pronounce a blessing upon the Mighty Siren for the $.20 a pound they gave the Guatemalan farmer which perpetuates his life of poverty? What we the hyper-globally connected First World should consider is how our interactions with and use of the global poor differ in spiritual and moral quality than the exploitation and oppression Israel’s ruling class bore upon their own poor. And if Western multinational corporations and nations have built their entire businesses and economies upon the cheap labor and products of the underdeveloped world, are we not responsible to those people? Furthermore, does not the Church bear the responsibility to raise the voice of moral outcry to these greedy corporations on behalf of our global neighbor?
The principle of moral proximity should govern our understanding of Christian prophetic witness, an idea that mirrors the Roman Catholic Church’s teachings on subsidiarity, which says the social unit closest to a social problem is most responsible and best able to bring solvency. Moral proximity says that our moral focus should normally be on the problems and issues that are nearest, that we best know and care most about the local problems. According to Schneider, moral proximity has bearing on this discussion, because most ordinary Western Christians are so far removed from the actual oppression and injustice wrought upon the developing world to warrant any condemnation or divine judgement. But in light of the reality of our global economic system, it is incredibly difficult to dismiss the Christian responsibility to the global poor. There should be a more nuanced, exhaustive discussion of our redemptive responsibilities toward those whom we are economically linked. Redemptive, prophetic witness should include questions that challenge Christian abundance and affluence, including: Why do we Americans believe we have the right to two homes when others in Mexico stuff five families in a one room shack? Why do we Americans believe we have the right to a $120,000 Lexus when people in India earn less than $2.00 a week? Why do we Americans believe we have the right to 12 pairs of shoes when gypsies in Romania don’t have a source of water in their village?
In each of these countries, goods are produced that American Christians consume en masse: Mexico produces the Chrysler P.T. Cruiser, India produces GAP clothes, Romania gives us Puma shoes. We are much more connected than Schneider and others care to admit. Because I buy beans from Starbucks, am I not morally connected to the farmer in Kenya who is paid barely $.40 a pound? Is that just compensation? Does that provide a decent wage and source of abundance for him and his family? If I buy clothes from GAP, am I not morally culpable for the ten year old who slaved 90 hours one week to piece together my new outfit? Transnational corporations are incapable of providing the robust image of human worth needed to reform these economic practices. The prophetic voice of the Church, however, can bear witness to the worth and dignity of all humans by continuing to question American economic practices, questions that sit at the heart of a discussion of how the church should respond to globalization.
CONCLUSION
We serve a Global God who has called the Church on a global mission in the context of globalization. God is active among all nations, working on behalf of their oppression and desiring that all come to faith through Jesus Christ. Likewise, He has sent the Church to all nations to disciple them in the Way of Jesus and bear prophetic witness on behalf of the oppressed and marginalized. Because of the technological advancements of the last decade, the Church is primed to reach more nations than ever before and truly realize the apostle John’s vision of all tribes, tongues and people group’s bowing before the throne of the Lamb shouting, “Holy, Holy, Holy!” This task will not be easy, though. The Age of Globalization requires great care and respect on the part of every Christian as they engage the faiths of the Other in the discipleship process. Additionally, our hyper-connected economies no longer allow Christians to claim ignorance and turn a blind’s eye from the injustice wrought at the hands of the American consumers. Globalization has reduced the size of the world and created an interconnectedness like never before. Now is the time to respond by following our Global God into that world.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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